What is the situation in the current legislative period? Before analysing this question, a few remarks on methodological problems. Not every MEP who lives in the settlement area of a national minority can be considered a member of a minority. Some of them have moved into the minority area, but do not feel they belong there. There are Spanish MEPs with Basque names who moved away from the Basque Country as toddlers and do not represent minority concerns in their political activities. There are also MPs who come from minority areas but belong to a party that is active throughout the country and does not address minority issues or even rejects minorities. Others belong to a minority, but are members of a party that is active throughout the country and is also committed to minority issues.

It is often not immediately obvious whether an MP belongs to a national minority or is an advocate for the issues of such communities, unless it is already apparent from their membership of a political movement. Even the CVs of the MEPs, which can be viewed on the website of the EU Parliament, are sometimes not very helpful, nor are Wikipedia entries or other sources of information. Therefore, only those MEPs will be considered below whose commitment to national minorities is beyond doubt. The fact that some ambiguity exists is in the nature of things.

Seventeen members of the new EU Parliament are members of a national minority in their country of origin. They represent eleven national minorities. The following parliamentarians are concerned:

Romania: Romanian MEPs are elected according to a closed list system. The parties determine the order of the candidates on their list, and the voters cast their votes for the lists, but cannot change the order of the candidates. These lists are the same throughout the country. The Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania, RMDSZ, received the highest number of votes (577,000, or 6.48 per cent) in an election in the last 20 years, including local, parliamentary and presidential elections. It was the only party to represent the Hungarian minority. In 2019, the RMDSZ only just managed to clear the five per cent hurdle, with 5.26 per cent. Winkler has been an MEP since 2007, and Vincze since 2019. The RMDSZ remained in the European People’s Party faction, even after the Hungarian governing party Fidesz left the EPP in 2021 and founded the Patriots for Europe faction in 2024.

Spain: Movimiento Sumar, an alliance of regional and minority parties such as Catalunya en Comú and Compromís, received 4.67 per cent of the vote. Ahora Repúblicas, a similar alliance including Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, Euskal Herria Bildu and Bloque Nacionalista Galego, received 4.91 per cent. The Coalición por una Europa Solidaria with Euzko Alderdi Jeltzalea received 1.63 per cent.

Estonia: As members of the Russian communities in the Baltic states are mostly descended from Russian families who immigrated during the Soviet era, their classification as a national minority is debatable.

Italy: In Italy, lists of the German, French and Slovenian minorities can join forces with a national list in EU elections. The candidate of the minority list receives one of the seats won by the national list if they receive at least 50,000 votes. Since this regulation came into force, only the SVP has consistently cleared this hurdle. In this election, the SVP formed a list alliance with Forza Italia. Herbert Dorfmann received 82,426 votes in the north-east constituency. The SVP received 0.52 per cent of the vote in Italy as a whole; in South Tyrol it was 47 per cent. In the 2019 election, Dorfmann received 100,446 votes, 93,957 in 2014 and 84,361 in 2009, when Dorfmann was first elected to the European Parliament.

Belgium: The German-speaking Community in East Belgium is a separate constituency, so a seat is guaranteed. Arimont defended the seat he won in 2019.

In addition to these MEPs, there are others who can be classified as members of minorities, but under special criteria. This applies, for example, to Hungary. In recent years, Viktor Orbán’s government has generously handed out passports to members of the Hungarian minorities in neighbouring states. This is now also reflected in the EU Parliament. With Viktória Ferenc (Fidesz party; 44.8 per cent; Patriots for Europe faction) and Gabriella Gerzseny (Tisztelet és Szabadság Pártja; 29.6 per cent; European People’s Party (Christian Democrats)), both of whom come from Ukraine, and Annamaria Vicsek (Fidesz) from Serbia, Hungary has three MEPs who do not come from an EU member state. Kinga Gál, from Kolozsvár/Klausenburg/Cluj in Transylvania (Romania), is also a member of the European Parliament for Orbán’s Fidesz party and is entering her fifth term in office.

Fredis Beleris in the Greek delegation is a Nea Demokratia (New Democracy) member of parliament for Nea Demokratia (New Democracy; 28.3 per cent; European People’s Party (Christian Democrats), but comes from Albania and belongs to the Greek minority there. Another special case is Eugen Tomac, who was born in the Ukrainian part of Bessarabia but lives in Romania and has been elected to the European Parliament for the second time for the Partidul Mișcarea Populară (People’s Movement Party; Renew faction).

Lukasz Kohut, who sits in parliament as a member for Poland’s Koalicja Obywatelska (Civic Coalition; 37.1 per cent; Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats), describes himself as a Silesian regionalist. The assertion of a separate Silesian identity is controversial; Kohut is therefore not counted as a minority representative in this analysis.